J. D. Greear calls out specific churches on sexual abuse handling

The Executive Committee meeting of last evening was remarkable and unprecedented in a number of ways. For the SBC President to call on an official SBC committee to review the standing of a list of churches for their handling of sex abuse is quite astonishing. The Biblical Recorder put it this way:

He called the bylaws workgroup of the administrative committee to do due diligence in reviewing the standing of the following churches mentioned in recent media reports on sexual abuse to determine whether they have a “faith and practice which closely identifies” with the Baptist Faith & Message:

All ten of these churches were named in the Houston Chronicle story. The two most notable churches in the list are the massive Second Baptist, Houston, where former SBC President Ed Young is pastor and Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, C. J. Mahaney, pastor.

Quite remarkable to see this done. It would be an example of leveraging autonomy.

Greear: “I am not calling for disfellowshipping any of these churches at this point, but these churches must be called upon to give assurances to the Southern Baptist Convention that they have taken the necessary steps to correct their policies and procedures with regards to abuse and survivors,” Greear said.

The Houston Chronicle aggregates a handful of these and probably wins some journalistic award. If one is looking at cases where abuse and abusers were handled poorly, find a way to access all of Bob Allen’s hundreds of stories on individual abuse cases. Allen is a reporter for Baptist News Global, formerly Associated Baptist Press. He’s been covering these for well over a decade.

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About William Thornton

William Thornton is a lifelong Southern Baptist and semi-retired pastor who served churches in South Carolina and Georgia. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia and Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. You may find him occasionally on Twitter @wmgthornton.

This is good but if followed to the end, will be a long time investigative work as more and more persons come forward. How many victims have waited for the day to have a voice heard? Is this that day? I hope so. I hope those in pain will see that many want this exposed and are willing to be the David to the Goliaths in the room.

As things unfold, it may get very messy… So be it. This bold stand for the victims and the willingness to inspect autonomous churches may be the highlight of JDG’s legacy as SBC President.

For such a time as this… Thanking God for JDG and all who pick up the mantel to march forward into this ugly battle.

Will be praying for those who go to war and the churches who must be looked at. The transient nature of many churches will not help the investigation. God, open the doors… please.

February 19, 2019 8:47 am

Les Colvin

Strong measures but quite possibly necessary to right the wrongs. Hopefully, this public accountability will help pastors and churches learn their lesson and prevent others from going down the wrong path on this issue. Not saying that is the best motivation.That would be the protection of children, women, and other innocent victims and prevention of the defilement of the Body of Christ and Christ’s name. Maybe public “shaming” will be the impetus to help these churches and all others do the right thing.
Interesting that Bellevue wasn’t included. Of course none of us know the exact details of any of these situations.
President Greear seems to be taking this very seriously. Perhaps he is the man for “such a time as this.” Thankful we have him leading our convention whether he had church Sunday before Christmas or not. These real issues put those other menial things in perspective.

Not sure about the disfellowshipping of guilty churches. Not opposed to it under certain circumstances. Just going to be very complicated on how that would take place. Every situation is different. Time does take things into account. Have changes been made? Is past guilty leadership no longer at the church? Balancing grace and truth/justice is always a thin line that most churches and pastors struggle with at some time or another.
This issue will certainly have to be handled with much prayer and godly wisdom.

Clearing the record……Gaines only addressed when it became public knowlege and reported 6 months after the fact….before he took no action. If process is fair it will consider all churches.

February 19, 2019 1:08 pm

Tarheel_Dave

Wow. That is significant.

I have a few questions off the bat.

“ …determine if they have any faith and practice that closely aligns with the Baptist Faith and message”

1. Which BFM? (Ascribing to The 2000 version is not required for cooperation and many churches – not sure about these – ascribe to the 1963 and have not been declared as not being closely aligned in the past for that reason)

2. Since the BFM does not address abuse how could any of these churches be in violation (or the more preferred term “not closely aligned”) with it in regard to abuse handling.

3. Is JDG and the exec committee about to cast a wide net or narrow one for exclusions? Meaning are they including churches who otherwise might not “ have a faith and practice closely aligned with the Baptist Faith and message“?

4. Should we consider amending the BFM with a specific section on the issue of abuse?

February 19, 2019 8:57 am

Debbie Kaufman

If there are churches and pastors, ex-Convention Prez, deacons, elders etc, shaking in your boots right now wondering who is next after last night, good you should be.

I think that the aim is to put churches in a position of having to provide some response publicly. In the cases of SGC and 2BH, they have already addressed this with the Chronicle and others who have brought the matter up. Don’ t know about the other 8 churches. See the updated OP.

It seemed to me like some of the replies to the Chronicle were stonewalling rather than responding. Of course that’s subjective, but I think (and I’d like to think) Greear’s message last night was that stonewalling isn’t going to cut it.

It wouldn’t be hard to find a section or sections of the BFM to use against the practice of sexual abuse.

But clearer guidelines of some sort are being discussed.

February 19, 2019 9:23 am

Tarheel_Dave

Dave,

Respectfully, disfellowsipping churches for not being closely aligned to the Baptist Faith and message , IMO, should only happen if there’s a clear text within our confession that they’re not aligned with.

I am thinking that if we are going to talk about disfellowshiping churches – that the Baptist Faith and message probably should be updated to include clear and specific language relating to what we expect churches to be closely align with.

I’m certainly willing to vote for a properly worded and thought out amendment.

Again, there are plenty of places where sexual abuse among pastors could be identified as not in compliance with our confession of faith.

I believe there will be more specificity on that issue, but do we need a clause in the BF&M saying that sexual abuse is a hanging offense? Some things are just plain.

February 19, 2019 3:45 pm

Tarheel_Dave

Yeah by inference certainly. It’s “Common Horse sense”, as my grandpa used to say, but without some specificity I’m not seeing how disfellowshipping can/should happen…do we leave the disfellowshiping option to subjectivity when specificity is possible. (Remembering that same subjectivity standard we like today might one day be used in ways we don’t like in the future.)

If you don’t mind – please share What sections of the BFM you are referring to that provide for a “not in close alignment” declaration.

[…] Already noted at SBC Voices was Greear’s insistence that those churches named in the Houston Chronicle series, and others accused of poorly handling abuse allegations, give an explanation or accounting of the events described in the article, as well as steps they have taken since then to correct past failures. Friendly cooperation with the convention (in other words remaining a part of the SBC) includes working with convention leadership in these areas. […]

I thank God for the way He is leading Greear and others to address this.

I pray that God will strengthen Greear and all our leaders and give them wisdom and protect them from evil.

With regard to the churches, may He correct what needs to be corrected, heal those who need to be healed, and, (I pray it won’t come to this) if need be expel any who need to be expelled to protect others and our gospel work.

I also pray that God will be with us in the coming months. I wish there were no more victims, but there are probably many. May each of them find healing in Christ, and may they find the right time and place to tell their stories. God help us to be vigilant to protect children and others from sexual predators. In Jesus Name, Amen.

February 19, 2019 4:28 pm

Suzanne Lin

Cleaning house is really exhausting and dirty work. I usually start with a list and take it one room at a time. My house usually looks worse before it looks better – dust swirling, trash bags filling up, furniture moved out of place. Greear made his list. He’s cleaning house. And let’s stay prayerful if it gets worse before it gets better.